Darth Imperious Saves the Galaxy (and looks damn good doing it)
by Xahn777
Summary: Shot down over yet another desert planet, Obi-Wan and Anakin discover something that will inevitably change the face of the war and the Jedi Order in more ways than anyone could imagine. Co-Written with Mortimer012
1. Chapter 1

"Why is it always sand, Master?" Anakin whined while sitting on the wreckage of his downed Delta-7B Aethersprite. "At least it's not Tatooine…"

"Now, now my young Padawan not every desert planet is as bad as Tatooine." Obi-Wan chided from his own starfighter, a scant dozen meters away while shaking sand out of his boots. "It's the third time this month your piloting has gotten us securely on the planet. It's a wonder the Separatists bother trying." Obi-wan pulled his boots back on, "Now that your excellent skills have gotten us on world we just need to discover the source of this disturbance, see if the separatists would be willing to let us off world with a new ship, and rejoin the fleet at Metalorn."

"Well maybe if I knew why the Council sent us here in the first place, I would have actually been prepared for the Separatist cruisers." Anakin gave himself one last pat down before realizing his lightsaber was gone, again.

The sound of Anakin's swearing, bright, colorful and in at least three different languages, brought to Obi-Wan's attention the fact that his former Padawan had lost yet another lightsaber. before he could give his standard 'this weapon is your life, please don't lose it, again' speech, Anakin hopped of the remains of his Starfighter, and in an attempt to stave off the inevitable interjects with, "Master I sense something this way. We should probably go have a look, before the sun rises and we have to deal with scorching hot sand."

"Hey, Artoo are your sensors picking up anything interesting?" before the little droid can warble a response Anakin kicked a small chunk of metal poking out of the sand in an attempt to vent a little frustration.

Obi-Wan looked at Anakin's little outburst and shook his head. He definitely needed to try and encourage him to be more patient in the future though his attention was caught by a dull hollow clanking that echoed strangely from beneath the scrap that Anakin had kicked.

The echoing was followed by a deep rumbling as the dune they had crashed into began to shake violently. "Not again," Obi-Wan sighed as the dune began to collapse, taking them with it.

* * *

"It wasn't my fault this time!" Anakin swore while pulling himself out from where he had been half buried under sand and shattered starfighter.

"That's what you said last time Anakin." Obi-Wan groaned from his own pile.

Artoo gave the pair a series of disparaging whistles, followed by a rude blatt, drawing their attention to the odd sandstone cavern they had found themselves in. The cavern was oddly regular, almost a perfect square. It took Anakin a moment to notice the faded carvings on the walls, depicting the aftermath of a bloody battle, with ghastly specters being torn from the corpses.

"I have a bad feeling about this, Master…"

"This time Anakin, I feel the same way."

Artoo gave another series of exasperated beeps and whistles, before jabbing Anakin with his shock knight was surprised by the sudden shock before looking back to Artoo "Hey-! What? No it IS important."

"Anakin." Obi-Wan's voice faintly interrupted.

"Yes it is. Well OBVIOUSLY this looks like some kind of- I was getting to that." Oblivious, Anakin continued to argue with Artoo.

"Anakin."Obi-Wan tried again, his voice gaining some strength.

"Well I'd wager Si- well who else would have creepy ghosts?" Anakin gesticulated wildly at the walls.

"Anakin!" Obi-Wan practically shouted at his former Padawan.

"Alright but have you seen temples like this from them? No? Neither have I-"

Artoo gave another series of rude boops and warbles, before rolling a few feet away and spinning in place.

"What do you mean over here? There's nothing there!"

"ANAKIN!" Obi-Wan hollered, "Look up!"

Finally the very distracted knight looked up and froze in place, jaw hanging open. Floating in mid air, seemingly frozen in place was a grey starship with black wings and a hexagonal front, all in all it looked a bit like a upscaled version of the Eta-2 Actis that Kuat had been developing for use.

It took Anakin a moment to recognize the ship type from history classes in the temple, starships being one of the few subjects that could hold his attention for any length of time. "Is that a Fury-class Interceptor?" He rubbed the back of his head lost in thought, "It can't still be working, it's three thousand years old, at least." He said with a mix of awe and disbelief.

It wouldn't take a genius to know what was going on in Anakin's head, and Obi-Wan wondered for a moment just how much trouble this was going to get them into.

"Now, what's holding it up, and how are we getting it down…" Anakin sized the distance between him and the ship before taking a running leap.

"Wait! Anakin! Don't do anything rash!" Obi-Wan tried to warn his friend but it was too late, Anakin had taken a force enhanced leap towards the ship. There was a crackle of static electricity as Anakin crossed an invisible line and immediately froze in place thirty feet in the air.

Seeing Anakin frozen in place caused Obi-wan to sigh and shake his head before walking over, pulling over a nearby strut from their broken ship for precautionary reasons. "Always cleaning up your messes."

Unlike the very excited Anakin, his Master decided to take things slow and levitated the strut a meter in front of him, hoping that whatever had trapped the vessel and his foolish friend would freeze the strut in place before he could get caught in the field. He continued forward, towards the temple, carefully passing through one of the open passageways near the vessel and finally stopped as the same crackle of electricity echoed loudly and the strut froze in place.

Now that he had found one edge the barrier he made sure to keep a careful distance from it, with another strut levitated just in case.

The ship itself was above an elevated platform near the entrance to the temple, clearly some kind of rough hewn landing pad. Although the ship clearly wasn't from the same era as the temple. It had most likely triggered one of the temples defenses, or fallen into a trap of some kind.

"Artoo can you identify the source of this field?" Obi-Wan asked once it became clear that there was no way around the trapped area.

Artoo blew a raspberry at Obi-Wan, and circled the ominous looking black metal box perched on a large rock with wires running out of it and under the sand. Arto gave a forlorn warble and waved his computer interface arm fruitlessly, the slab of rock the box was on elevated the port just out of his reach.

Obi-Wan looked over to Artoo and raised a brow as he headed over. "Well done Artoo."

When he reached the box the Jedi master considered trying to move it down for his droid companion when he noticed the box just had a large red button, and a single computer interface port. The only other markings was a faded variant of symbol of the Jedi Order. Obi-Wan estimated it to be around 4 thousand years old as well.

The symbol caught Obi-Wan off guard, he considered pressing the button now that he had seen the symbol of his order however he glanced back at the ship and Anakin before stopping, there had to have been a reason this was put here and he didn't really like the idea of interfering with something that the order placed here so long ago.

Artoo gave a warble and nudged Obi-Wan out of the way, before igniting his rocket boosters and hovering near the port. Obi-Wan raised his brow as he looked at his hovering droid friend.

"Artoo?" He said, " Let's not rush forward, I think Anakin proved that approach will get us nowhere."

The little droid though continued to hover and warbled rapidly in response.

"I have no intention of leaving him there! We will get him down safely. I just do not think that cutting the power is a good idea."

The droid continued to hover in place though turned its head to face Obi-wan as he continued to garble.

"Well this is isn't just some random accident, this is clearly a trap." Obi-wan sighed and shook his head."Like Master like droid…"

Artoo blew another raspberry in response.

"Don't look at me, like that. I blame you for his bad habits, I certainly didn't teach Anakin to behave in such a way…"

Obi-Wan sighed at Artoo's insistant beeping, "Very well, but do not turn anything off, just connect and find out what you can alright?"

With a triumphant whir the droid turned back to the box and moved forward, slotting his connection into the port and the familiar turning of the port's components followed soon after though the sound of a very frustrated droid soon followed.

"Well than, if the controls are locked out than all the more reason to not interfere until we have a better idea what is going on."

The droid went silent for a moment before continuing with its beeps. "What? Well. play it than."

Obi-wan took a slight step back as the droid activated its holo projector. A recorded message in the device quickly turning on, a robed figure appearing.

"To whomsoever finds this box I am Jedi Master Du'mas Mo-Tar, please do not deactivate the field. I have been able to lure the Dreadlord of the Sith, Darth Imperius into this trap for the good of the galaxy. This sith cannot be allowed free, and has proven to be nearly undefeatable in battle, if you value peace and freedom then leave this place, and never return."There was a burst of garbled static, and the message looped back to the beginning.

Obi-Wan motioned for Artoo to move away from the box and took a step back. "Well, Artoo, look like we'll have to find another way to get Anakin down."

The Astromech gave a disappointed warble but landed and rolled back about a meter anyway. Obi-Wan wandered over to the edge of the field, momentarily lost in thought, trying to figure away to remove Anakin from the stasis field without powering it down entirely.

After a half an hour of fruitless deliberation Obi-wan heard Artoo fire his rockets and quickly turned to see the little Astromech flying through the air towards the button.

"Artoo stop!" Obi-Wan tried to grab the droid with the force but it was too late, the small astromech smacked onto the button with a defiant raspberry.

There was a loud discharge of static electricity followed by the field around the ship briefly becoming visible before fizzling out. Obi-wan activated his saber when the stasis field went down and rushed towards the ship.

As the field faded Anakin continued his jump like he hadn't been stuck in a stasis field for the better part of an hour. Unfortunately for him, the vessel continued its landing sequence and with a loud hiss of steam and a series of heavy thuds as the landing struts hit the ground after being suspended for 4000 years. Anakin was taken by complete surprise at the ship's sudden change in position and instead of landing safely on top of the ship he ended up hitting the ship at an awkward angle and as the ship adjusted its landing struts to stabilize itself on the uneven ground, he stumbled and fell, rolling across the uneven surface of the ship's wing, before falling off entirely and smashing into the ground.

Obi-wan leaped over to Anakin, "Anakin! Are you alright?" Before Anakin could answer though, the sound of a ramp being lowered caught everyone's attention and soon both the Jedi had to clutch the sides of their heads as an unfathomably deep and blindingly bright presence in the Force flooded out from the ship. Obi-Wan felt it was rather like staring directly into the heart of a star.

Still clutching his head Anakin shakily got to his feet. "Master? What _is_ that!"

"I would assume that it's Darth Imperius!" Obi-Wan managed to say through grit teeth.

"That doesn't feel like a Sith to me."

They were interrupted by the sound of the ancient ship's airlock opening and with a series of metallic clanks and hisses the ramp descended. Once the ramp was fully extended someone staggered down it, the angle of the ramp hiding most of the being's form, except for the fluttering edge of the black cloak.

"Kriffing hells, when I find the Jedi who thought that was a good idea _I'll eat his ghost_." Bright presence in the Force or not, Anakin felt the mysterious stranger sounded like a Sith. And as he rounded the corner Anakin realized he dressed like a Sith as well. A black and red melding of armored bodyglove and arcane robe topped with a skull like mask, his outfit wouldn't be out of place on the villain of one of the cheesy holodramas that Padme pretended to hate but watched regularly.

What caught Obi-Wan's attention was the long double bladed lightsaber hanging from his ornate belt.

"Oh look, baby Jedi, are your masters here?" The stranger asked, seeming genuinely curious, "The Jedi didn't 'usually' leave their padawans unattended." He shrugged, "Eh… whatever, do you two know of any good spas around here? Four thousand years in stasis will leave you with such a crick in the neck. Preferably one with Twi' 's just something about head tails that gets my motor running."

A female voice echoed from the top of the ramp, "You only get a sexy Twi'lek masseuse if I get a hunky one!"


	2. Chapter 2

The pair of Jedi stared in shock, before Anakin's brain finally caught up enough to realize that both he and Obi-Wan were just insulted. Anakin barely suppressed a flash of rage, and seeing as his lightsaber had been lost again, gave a mighty yank on the double bladed saber hanging from the Sith's belt.

The saber's hilt barely moved before the Sith's arm lashed out catching it in midair. "Now now… didn't your mother teach you to keep your hands off of things that don't belong to you? Eh, wait… nevermind Jedi don't have mothers."

Anakin let out an inarticulate cry of rage and leapt towards the Sith hands outstretched in an attempt to strangle the stranger. The Sith casually snapped his fingers, releasing a tiny bolt of lightning that struck Anakin mid leap.

Anakin found himself suspended in mid air, as wind whipped up around him bouncing him around in an invisible tornado. "Now, back in my day Jedi were taught to control their emotions. you know the whole 'There is no emotion, there is peace. There is no ignorance, there is knowledge. There is no passion, there is serenity. There is no chaos, there is harmony. There is no death, there is the Force' malarky. Has the standard for your kind fallen or something while I was gone?" He gave an echoey sniff from inside his helmet, I much prefer our own code, 'Peace is a lie, there is only passion. Through passion, I gain strength. Through strength, I gain power. Through power, I gain victory. Through victory, my chains are broken. The Force shall set me free me.' All in all a much better code to live by don't you think younglings?"

Obi-wan kept his eyes and his saber locked on the Sith as he pulled the double bladed saber back and clipped it back on his belt. "Now, tell me, are credits still a valid currency? Or has it been replaced by something else? I hope not, need a serious vacation now.. hmm, maybe Voss… or Alderaan. Maybe Belsavis. Or Hoth, we could make snow devils and have a snowball fight Ashara!" he called over his shoulder.

"Maybe when the world stops spinning Kallig. However long we were trapped here really took its toll on us. Poor Talos is passed out on the floor whimpering and Andronikos is sick all over the fresher."

Kallig just laughed, "They'll be fine, they've endured worse. At least Khem isn't cooking again."

Obi-Wan tried to take advantage of the Sith's distraction and tried to Force pull Anakin free of his whirling prison, when that didn't work he tried to stop the wind. When neither worked he tried to lift anakin out of the vortex and momentarily succeeding only for Kallig to nonchalantly flick his wrist without looking, trapping Anakin again.

"Now now. Let's leave the upstart there for a moment longer." The sith, Kallig apparently gave a cheerful clap, and said, "Oh, dear me. We've been terribly rude. Introductions, all around. My name is Darth Imperius, Master of the Dead, Keeper of Knowledge for the Sith Council,Forcewalker-"

As Kallig monologued an annoyed sigh came from the ship. "Get on with it dear."

"-Knight of Alderaan," He continued without missing a beat, "Conqueror of Corellia, Thronebreaker, Heir to Tulak Hord, the Honorable, the Benevolent Lord Kallig, Imperial Scholar." He extended an arm to the woman unsteadily descending the ramp, "and this is the lovely Ashara Zavros. My wife."

"Not until we have that ceremony." The woman stepped out of the shadow of the ship's wing and it took Obi-Wan a moment to process exactly what he was seeing,as the orange and blue Togruta, who looked strikingly similar to Ahsoka, seemed to be the polar opposite of the Sith as she was wearing a set of traditionally cut simple pale blue Jedi robes, further increasing her similarities with Ahsoka where the two lightsabers dangling from her belt and while, she was nowhere near as strong a Force presence as Kallig, Obi-Wan could feel she radiated nearly as bright as Kallig, but warmer and softer, less heart of star The-Light-That-Cleanses, and more warm summer afternoon, The-Light-That-Nurtures. "And please stop blatantly toying with the poor Jedi's minds Master. It's unbecoming of you."

Kallig sighed, and rubbed the top of his helmet absentmindedly, "I know, It's just we came all the way out here for another ghost only to be trapped in a stasis field for millennia and when we finally get out," he gestured towards the ruin, "the kriffing ghost is gone! And then these clowns show up and are rude about it!"

Ashara gave Kallig a stern look which eventually did seem to convince him, with an annoyed sigh he flicked his wrist in Anakin's vague direction, and with another spark of lightning the Knight stopped tumbling in midair and collapsed on all fours and became heartily sick all over the sandstoner floor, Obi-Wan was relieved that his friend was free but froze when Kallig looked at him. "Hmm… not the one I was looking for, but you will do nicely."

Obi-Wan reignited his saber as he stood ready for whatever Kallig was going to try and pull though despite his attempt to be ready he was rather easily flung aside as Kallig flicked his wrist, a few random sparks of lightning arced off his fingers, one particularly large one hitting a nearby rock.

"Stand aside Jedi. I would prefer you not interfering with my work."Kallig's eyes flashed purple, visible even from the inside of his mask, "How long have you Followed these two, ghost?" He cocked his head to the side, as if listening to an inaudible voice, "Twelve years? I'd ask if you had a life but…"

An icy pit opened in his stomach as Obi-wan slowly stumbled to his feet. While he was staring at Kallig a small med pack landed at his feet. "Just stay out of this for a little longer alright? We would prefer not having to hurt…" Ashara's eyes grew cold, her expression stern, "If you interrupt my Master During his ritual I'll have to." Swallowing past the lump in his throat Obi-Wan carefully used the force to open the pack but he couldn't make sense of the contents.

Kallig went quiet for several minutes, nodding along with a voice only he could hear. "Ah" he turned to Obi-Wan and Anakin, who had stopped puking and was struggling to his feet, "I seem to have found your Master." He clapped his hands together cheerfully, "Good news is I can help with that."

Obi-Wan felt himself going pale, all the blood draining from his face, "Master Qui-Gon?"

Kallig nodded, and held a hand about two meters off the ground, "About yay tall, greying, bearded, in desperate need of a haircut?" When Obi-Wan gave a weak nod in response, Kallig continued, "He says he's sorry by the way."

Obi-Wan stumbled backwards, several steps, only stopping when he hit a low wall and sliding down it.

Anakin rushed over to Obi-Wan and shook his shoulder. "Master? Master are you alright?"

Obi-Wan stared vacantly ahead mouth moving but no sound coming out. Anakin grit his teeth and snatch Obi-Wan's lightsaber out of his unresisting hands. He charged Kallig igniting the blue blade as he ran, while shouting a multitude of profanities at him.

"You know you'd make a pretty competent Sith," Kallig said conversationally as he dodged out of the way of Anakin's strikes. "Are you absolutely certain you're happy being a Jedi? It's never too late to switch sides."

"I'll never join you!" Anakin shouted before redoubling his efforts to part Kallig's skull faced mask from his neck.

With a bored sigh and a minor application of the force pulled his double bladed saber from his belt into his outstretched hand, igniting only one of the sides and locking his crackling orange blade with the blue of Obi-Wan's saber. Kallig brought a hand up to his mask and mimed a yawn before taunting Anakin further by putting his other hand behind his back. He continued nonchalantly parrying the rain of blows Anakin unleashed. After several seconds of Anakin's sustained assault, Kallig whipped his empty hand around and blasted Anakin away with a bolt of lightning. "Enough." Kallig said as the knight to smashed into a wall.

The Sith deactivated his saber and returned it to his place on his belt. "You know that anger is a Sith trait, NOT a Jedi one, right?" Kallig crossed his arms over his chest, "Being so infuriated that your rage takes over is a mistake most young Sith make… well old SIth make it as well, they're if too dumb to learn and lucky enough to survive." Kallig stalked over to where Anakin had collapsed.

"If you were a sith I'd have to say 'well done,' you know." with a flick of his wrist and a spark of lightning he launched Obi-Wan's saber out of Anakin's loosened grip and in Obi-Wan's general direction. "An excellent showing of the first two Tenets of the Sith Code, normally such dedication would warm my heart." Kallig struck a pose, left arm across his chest, supporting his right arm by the elbow, index finger extended. "In case you weren't paying attention that's 'Peace is a lie, there is only passion.' You used your passion to fuel your assault against a perceived threat to you and your master."

He held up a second finger, "Which brings me to the second Tenant. 'Through passion, I gain strength.' Your passions gave you the strength you needed to stand up and attack me, to surpass the damage to your body and the fatigue left by the little whirlwind I left you trapped in." He gave another cheerful clap, "It brings a tear to my eye when when the younger generations surpass my expectations. I'm considering taking that padawan comment back, you know." Kallig tapped a finger against the chin of his mask, "If you're interested in making some lifestyle changes, I wouldn't be against taking on another apprentice." He gave Anakin a sort of fatherly pat on his head. At the knight's blank look of shock Kallig ruffled his hair in an almost condescending way.

"Now, If you were in fact my apprentice I would have congratulated you on tapping into your emotions like that. Before giving you a stern lecture about battle strategy because you just charged me without any sort plan beyond hit it with my glow stick"

Ashara giggled softly when Kallig gently patted Anakin's cheek, by this point, the knight was so overwhelmed he just tipped over slowly slid down to his side as he tried to process it all.

"Now perhaps we could be a bit more civil? Unless you wish to continue with Sith negotiations , in which case I'll have to bounce your head off the floor a few times.."

The Sith Lord's diatribe had sapped Anakin's desire to fight. Was he really so close to falling? Was he more of a Sith then a Jedi?

"Good boy. Now, where were we? Ah yes, old ghosts." He tuned to Obi-Wan eyes settling just to the left and slightly above where the Jedi Master was still slumped against the wall. "I am what is called a Forcewalker amongst other things I can bind Force ghosts to myself, It's a symbiotic relationship, I get power you get to a change of scenery, and an opportunity free yourself of whatever regrets hold you to the mortal plain. And when whatever contract we agree upon ends you get help moving on to the afterlife."

Kallig nodded along with whatever Qui-Gon's Force ghost had said, "So you believe the hot head over there is some kind of Jedi Chosen One, destined to bring balance to the force? And that the Jedi are going about it the wrong way?" Kallig tapped his chin a few more times, "Tell you what, In return for helping you teach the boy You will serve me until he dies, the prophecy is fulfilled, or you decide you're ready to move on, whichever happens last."

Kallig patiently waited for the ghost's reply before nodding. "I do not go back on my deals with spirits." He carefully peeled off the glove on his right hand, revealing crimson skin ending in neatly manicured claws. With his left hand he drew an ornate dagger and sliced his exposed palm open. "Let my blood honor this agreement." He intoned with a ritual air.

He seemed to pulse brightly in the Forcearcs of electricity flowing from him and impacting the floor. Kallig's eyes began to glow an eerie purple, visible even through the dark lenses of his mask. He gestured dramatically towards Obi-Wan, hands now glowing the same shade of purple.

The rippling of the Force increased in intensity and frequency, becoming so chaotic that it was like staring into a hurricane. There was a faint pop and a blast of air surging away from the ancient Sith in all directions.

And just like that the ritual was over. Kallig collapsed into Ashara's waiting arms, the ritual seemed to have sapped a large deal of his strength and Ashara seemed to have been expecting it and had been waiting to support him until he could recover.

Standing where Imperius had gestured, between Obi-Wan and Anakin, shimmering a soft was the long dead Jedi master. Qui-gon smiled softly as he looked at them both. "It's so good to see how much you've grown. You don't know how proud I am of you both."


	3. Chapter 3

So... Uh... Life sucks? and uh... Sorry it took us so long with this chapter. Honestly this was mostly written by mortimer012 according to the plot I had laid out, I was supposed to publish it a month ago but RL sucks. I finally finished editing it, but it's probably not up to our usual standards. So without further ado the next chapter.

Obi-wan looked at his former Master and smiled wide while Anakin tried to reach to the ghost, not really believing his eyes at this.

"Master Qui-Gon?"He asked when his hand passed through the ghostly form of Qui-Gon Jinn, "Is it really, you?"

"Yes Anakin," Qui-Gon responded with a kind smile, "it is me."

As Obi-wan and Anakin had their little moment with Qui-gon Ashara helped to support Imperius over to some nearby rubble so he could sit down and recover. "That was rather nice of you, letting them talk to him."

The Sith gave a small nod as he stretched, getting some strength back in his body. "A deal's a deal after all."

She giggled softly looked over to the Jedi talking with their fallen friend. "So. where are we going after this?

Imperius sighed as he considered his options before looking over as well, chuckling at the trio before looking back to his hand. "Could you get my glove for me?" She nodded, heading to get the glove, giving Imperius some more time to think.

Obi-wan spotted Ashara collect the glove and excused himself from the discussion with Qui-Gon to head over to Imperius, the red skinned Sith looked at him as he came over.

"Yes? I'm not really in a fighting mood but you seem to be brains in the duo so I'm sure you know how it'll end anyway."

The Jedi Master hesitated for a moment at that as Ashara stepped past him to give the glove to Kallig.

"Unlike my young friend I tend to prefer a peaceful approach if at all possible." Obi-Wan said with a charming smile, "However, I find myself at a loss. You call yourself a Darth. A leader of the Sith. Yet you act nothing like any Sith I have ever heard of."

"Oh? What would you prefer than?" he said raising his hands dramatically, "'Kneel before me puny weakling or taste the power of the darkside!' or maybe just attacking you outright?" He wiggled his fingers miming lightning.

It was impossible to see through the mask but Obi-wan could hear the smile. "Well… those that we have met tend to take the latter approach when we encoun-"

Kallig raised his hand to silence Obi-wan while Ashara looked at him very intently now.

"Has the Empire survived? Tell me Jed,i where is the Sith capital now? Is it still on Drommund Kaas? I probably need to return and smack some manners back into the Sith. Again."

Obi-wan was obviously confused at this though tried to play nice, hoping he wasn't going to infuriate the bipolar Sith. "As far as we know the the Sith haven't had an Empire in over a thousand years, ever since the New Sith Empire fragmented into the Brotherhood of Darkness and then killed themselves as well as a hundred Jedi with a thought bomb." Obi-Wan shrugged, "Since then The Sith went into hiding, and have only recently reemerged. You are the third one we have encountered recently, although we believe there's a fourth hidden somewhere pulling the strings behind this damnable war."

Kallig was quiet at first, seemingly lost in thought. Then he laughed loud enough for Anakin and Qui-gon to hear him. "So you're saying that you've only seen two Sith so far? You hear that dear? Two upstarts are causing the Jedi trouble and they haven't caught either from the sound of things."

Obi-wan was not amused by this. "With all due respect, one is dead and the new apprentice is quite capable in combat and very good at running away when outmatched, and the master is hiding somewhere we can't find"

"The entire Jedi order can't catch even a single Sith apprentice? Wow, the standards for Jedi have fallen." Kallig said with a cackle, before sighing and saying with a shrug, "I guess I can't really blame you. After all I had to deal with Thanaton and his cowardly ways, the fool should've died on Corellia like the worm he was, instead of leading me on a merry chase across the galaxy."

Kallig shook his head in annoyance again as he remembered that infuriating Sith Lord. If he could strangle him again he would. "Hmm... Maybe I should get a Thanaton shaped stress ball…"

Obi-wan scratched his beard while thinking, he could swear that he had heard these names somewhere before, probably in the archives but he couldn't remember exactly where. "Now then, where is this Drommund Kaas anyway?"

"I am disinclined to inform you of the Sith capital world's location. How about you tell me yours and maybe I'll tell you mine, are you Jedi still based on Tython or have you moved? Coruscant maybe?"

Obi-wan was hesitant at this and instead asked a question to avoid the answer. "... you do seem to know a lot about the galaxy don't you?"

"Well I am Darth _Imperius_ after all. My service to the Sith Empire has taken me far and wide across the Galaxy and the Rishi Maze."

Ashara groaned and pinched her nose as she remembered where they landed up in there.

"Please don't talk about that place again…"

The conversation was interrupted by a man with a distinct pirate look to him stumbling down the ship's ramp, holding his head "Uugh, Boss, the ship is shot."

"Of course it is," Kallig groaned, "tell me that at least the hyperdrive is online, Andronikos."

"For now." Andronikos grumbled, "Don't know how long though, everything on board's acting weird," he began counting problems off "the lights are flickering, comms are dead, life support keeps shutting down and resetting but at least we've got the vac suits. Targeting is gone, it literally exploded, now the cockpit is a mess. The shields either off or are stuck on full power, I can't adjust their power at all. And everytime I turn the artificial gravity on everything not nailed down crashes into the ceiling before the power fluctuates again and it shuts down. Then everything on the ceiling crashes into the floor, including me." The pirate growled, "But hey the hyperdrive's still on!" He threw his arms into the air in exasperation, "I guess the navigation systems are working. And despite the power fluctuations the engines should still be strong enough to get off this dustball. If we don't explode first."

Kallig tried to massage his forehead through his mask, before giving it up as a bad job, "Are the droids alright? I don't want HK to glitch out and go on a rampage mid flight. Again."

"They were acting a bit strange so I shut the droids down and had Khem take 'em to storage to be safe." Andronikos seemed to noticed the two Jedi for the first time, "So who's the kid and the old guy anyway?"

"A pair of talkative Jedi. They're not a problem, see what you can do to stabilize the life support alright?"

"On it boss." The pirate quickly headed back inside the ship to work. The occasional clunk and object being thrown could be heard as he worked, generally followed by swearing in several languages.

Obi-wan looked at the ship for a while before looking back to Kallig who was slowly starting to get back up. "You keep rather… curious company."

"Only the best. Even if they are a bit strange at times."

"Ah I see." Obi-Wan hesitated "You do realize we cannot allow you to leave unescorted as we are at war with the Sith. And even if we leave together, the ships in orbit would shoot us down the moment we leave the atmosphere."

"Oh? Well this just makes it more interesting than." Kallig rubbed his hands together in glee. "Eh, do you know a place to get my ship repaired? I'm pretty sure anywhere I know has been shut down for ages. Literally."

Obi-wan rubbed his chin as he considered what Kallig said "Are you taking this matter seriously Darth Imperius?"

"Eh, Fifty-Fifty," He said with another smile in his voice and a waggle of his hand, "Now do you know a place we can get my ship fixed, or are we stuck on this dust ball until someone notices you're gone?"

Anakin quickly spoke up, having somehow silently entered into the conversation unnoticed. "Let me help fix your comms and contact my ship, then you'll be able to dock in it for repairs."

A bit surprised by the stealthy approach Obi-wan looked over to Anakin and raised a brow. "Are you sure that is wise?"

"No, but do you have a better idea, Master?"

Obi-Wan sighed in defeat, "You have a point Anakin." He turned back to Kallig who was whistling and studying his claw like fingernails, through his glove, "We will offer you safe haven on our ship and access to repairs in return for your help against the current Sith."

Kallig paused in thought for a moment, "I already agreed to help the boy so it won't be much of a problem, as long as the Jedi don't try to start a fight with me. Alright you have a deal. I'll go inform the others. Come on."

Kallig relaxed a bit as he walked, followed closely by Ashara to the ship. Once he was inside Obi-Wan stopped Anakin, "We're playing with fire here Anakin. There's a real chance we could be expelled from the order for this."

"Would that be so bad Master?" Anakin replied softly. "Let's face it I'm not a great Jedi."

"Oh, Anakin..." Obi-Wan sighed laying a hand on his friends shoulder, "No matter what the council says I'll always be proud of you."

Qui-Gon Shimmered into existence behind them and wrapped his arms around their shoulders, the feeling was strange, like they could feel him there, but at the same time not though he spoke up. "No matter what happens, no matter what the council calls you," Qui-Gon glanced at Anakin from the corner of his eye, "No matter what mistakes you've made, or rules you've broken you have both become splendid Jedi."

Upon boarding the ship they were accosted by a middle aged man with a joyful spring in his step dressed in a sharp grey uniform. He stood at attention and saluted them sharply. "Lieutenant Talos Drellik, Imperial Reclamation Service at your service. It is truly a honor to meet members of the Jedi Order who are not attacking us." He paused, "whether they are from the past, our past that is, or the future, your present, I have so many questions only you could answer!" HE cheerfully extended his hand.

Obi-wan took the hand and got a surprisingly firm hand shake. "A pleasure to meet you Lieutenant. "

"Oh the pleasure is all mine Master Jedi. There is so much I could learn from you. Ooooh I wonder how much things have changed while we were stasis locked!"

Anakin just rolled his eyes and tried to slip past Talos to find the bridge, causing the lieutenant to frown. "Did I do something wrong?" Talos asked, sounding genuinely worried.

"Don't mind him this is just a… unusual moment for us. Tell me is there perhaps somewhere where I could rest undisturbed?"

"Ah of course, please follow me."

While Obi-wan found a nice place to be alone Anakin entered the cockpit and raised a brow. The pirate from before was under a terminal and messing with it, getting a nasty jolt in the process.

"AH! You son of a-!"

The Jedi cleared his throat to get Andronikos' attention and it worked, the man came out to see. "...oh it's you. What's up pretty boy?"

Ignoring the comment Anakin went straight to work. "Where's the comms? Need to g-"

"Get em fixed to trap us on a ship of yours. Yeah I heard…" He raised his boot and gave a rough pointing towards the wall where a small holoprojector was. "There. Now don't bug me till I get th- AGH! Damnit!"

Skywalker sighed and shook his head at the pirate's antics, heading over to the wall to pry open the comms and get to work.

"So… take it you're the captain then?"

"Yeah? What's it to you?"

"Just wondering."

"Yeah right. Always a reason."

Anakin continued to try and hold a Conversation for The first half an hour before lapsing into silence while they worked. Eventually he headed over and smacked the console above the pirate. A large zap rushed through the pirate for a moment before the system beeped to life and stayed on.

The pirate swore loudly and awkwardly scrambled out from under the console ready for a fight.

"Fixed them." Anakin said smugly "Comms are back up, but I had to patch the power though life support to get it working again. It should work but I might have destabilized the shields, I double check them."

The Jedi walked away from the still cursing pirate, only to be hit with a oily rag on his way out of the cockpit. "Good work kid…"

Anakin picked the rag up from where it had fallen and tossed it back at Andronikos. "You too, pirate."

With that he left to find Obi-wan, he'd have time to ogle the ship when it was safe and sound on the Resolute.


End file.
